The Delhi High Court issued a notice to Delhi Police on the petition filed by Alt News co-founder Muhammad Zubair

The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notice to Delhi Police on the petition filed by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, challenging the legality of his police remand in a case related to an alleged objectionable tweet he had posted in 2018 against a Hindu deity, seeks response from prosecution.

Delhi Police arrested Zubair on June 27 on the allegations of hurting religious sentiments through one of his tweets.

Delhi Police registered a case under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, language, etc.) and 295A (deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Zubair by saying that the case was registered on the complaint of a Twitter user who accused him of hurting religious sentiments.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Snigdha Sarvaria has granted four days custody interrogation of Zubair on June, 28.

Counsel for Zubair submitted before High Court that the alleged offensive tweet was of March 2018 so it was barred by limitation and no court can take cognisance of this case and whether the order of trial court for remand was legal.

Counsel contended that this remand order is non-application of mind. It violates my rights. Could I be detained in this manner? Could my phone and laptop be seized in this manner? This is the issue here. “If courts don’t stop this, nobody is going to be safe in this country’.

Government Counsel for Delhi Police objected the maintainability of the petition and said that the FIR is only an initiation of proceedings and the investigating agency may find material to show that there is no offence or that there is a serious offence. He submitted that the police has already given a clean chit to Zubair in another FIR against him.

Counsel for Zubair submitted that not only Zubair but several other persons have tweeted the same thing but no action has been taken against them.

Delhi High Court Justice Sanjeev Narula after hearing the plea which challenges the legality and propriety of the trial court’s June 28 order granting four days of custody of Zubair to the police, passed an order to issuance of notice and granted two weeks time to the prosecution to file its response.

The Single-Judge Bench said, ‘I am confident that the magistrate will examine the case on the basis of material.”

Justice Narula said the proceedings before the trial court would continue without being influenced by the present proceedings and listed the matter for further hearing on July 27.